Thursday, June 14, 2012

Geeking Out with...Dave Pasquesi (Part Two)

By Pam Victor

[“Geeking
Out with…” is a series of interviews with well-known, highly experienced
improvisers. It’s a chance to talk about stuff that might interest hardcore,
improv dorkwads like Pam. The series can be found in full frontal geek out
version on My Nephew is a Poodle and in pithier
version on the Women in Comedy Festival blog. For behind-the-scenes action, ‘like’ the “Geeking Out with…” Facebook
page.]

In Part One of Geeking
Out with…Dave Pasquesi, we covered Dave’s introduction to and training in
improv, the benefits of following your fears, and his stint as a cowboy in New
Mexico. As we moved into our second geek out session together, I began to
realize that my luscious, terrifying challenge was to avoid the quicksand of
seeming precious and assish while partaking – sometimes in sips, but for me in
great, greedy gulps – in invigorating brain quaffs of improv philosophy. The
joke is on us, I suspect, as Dave Pasquesi couldn’t be farther from a precious
ass if he tried. (Lordy, I hope he uses that quote on his website some day.)
Thus, we pick up the conversation with a continuation of his interpretations of
the lessons of Del Close.

***

PAM: You mentioned in our last interview that you
follow Del Close’s instruction to perform “characters played as a thin veil.” I would love to hear you expand on that
please.

DAVE: I think it
was for a couple reasons. First, because none of us were accomplished actors,
and that if we were busy 'acting' then we would not be honestly responding in the
moment.

Also, our type of performance and comedy is not broad
characters...more simple and honest. So we are ourselves, but with slight
exaggerations.

David Pasquesi

[I am reminded] of something Del said. That the line is not
finished until you recognize it was received.

PAM: And how do you show it was recognized?
Internally or by expressing it with the yes-and…?

DAVE: Mostly just
a recognition in the eyes.

PAM: Lovely.

This is a complex
topic disguised as a simple question: How best to honestly respond only to
the scene and other player?

DAVE: By paying
close attention.

PAM: Simple answer that
takes decades of work.

Yes, Mr. Pasquesi, you
are known and respected widely for your ability to pay attention. More like Pay
Attention. Or PAY ATTENTION. Not a command, just a full-bodied, full-minded
gift.

DAVE: TJ and I go
over every show immediately afterwards. If there was an error, the cause is always
that one of us did not pay close enough attention.

PAM: Hence the pace of
your show, which facilitates receiving the message.

This is tricky to break down, I know - maybe I'm asking you to parse out bits of fog or magic – but can you talk about the moment that happens after you receive the message? There is a great deal of attention being paid in that moment as well.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is what people are seeing you do when they remark at your uncanny ability to Pay Attention, and what that feels like from inside your mind and body.

DAVE: Hmm. The
reason to pay attention: We've been told that your scene partner is the most important
person on the planet. If that's true (and it is), why wouldn't you want to
learn all you can from them?

Also, my scene partner is the answer to all
problems...again, why then would I not pay very close attention?

I don't know how anyone else "listens," but I
think the goal is to have a frame of mind that is not, "Oh, good. I'll be
able to use that as a joke later on."

Also, I would not recommend being in my mind.

PAM: Ha. I'm sure I've
seen worse.

Is your goal, when
doing improv, to be in a constant state of discovery?

DAVE: Exactly. Rather
than fabrication. Discovery of what is already there, not what I can make it
into.

PAM: What specifically do
you do to meet that goal and to get into the realm of discovery rather than
invention?

DAVE: I’m not
there yet, but I've been at it for a while. And all that while, I have had
relatively the same goal for improvising.

It’s really is a lot about faith. That I am going to be fine
without all my great ideas.

PAM: So you're saying, to
get in a space of discovery, you set that as the goal?

DAVE: That's what
I think. It isn't going to happen by accident. It has to be intentional.

PAM: So you set an intention
to remain open to discovery and resist the prescribed?

DAVE: Yeah - but
then this conversation becomes even more precious - about how not to resist,
because that is giving it attention…and other nonsense ideas like that.

PAM: (We don't want to
get precious.)

DAVE: (Please. Promise
me.)

PAM:(I would love to promise you anything, but
the line between “precious” and my intense curiosity to step inside your brain/process
is thin and wavy.)

DAVE: I do think
it is not about resisting, but remaining open.

PAM: I see. [Though it’ll
take another decade of work, I suspect, for my improv soul to truly see.]

I’ve heard you often
talk about your show in a way that sounds almost spiritual to me. For instance,
in the documentary “Trust
Us, This is All Made Up,” you said that the scene is going on before you
take the stage, and you just step into it for an hour or so. When I hear you
say that, it conjures images of a Zen concept of “flow” or that ancient Greek
philosopher who said, “You cannot step into the same river twice.”

Do you think of improv
in a spiritual way or is that just the way you have chosen to describe it?

(Was that precious???
Are you making barfing noises?)

DAVE: For me, I
have chosen to describe it that way because I believe that those are the best
terms.

(Yes, but because I am actually barfing.)

PAM: (Hahaha! On the plus
side, barfing is not precious at all.)

DAVE: I say,
faith and trust…and, yes, love about improvisation. You have to have those things.
And not for any other reason than the scene usually does not work as well
without them.

It is not so much spiritual as it is effective. (And I
happen to believe the same of spiritual things, too.)

PAM: There is much Zen in
improv. That's the book I've always wanted to write.

(But then people would
barf all over it.)

(So I guess the cover
would have to be waterproof.)

DAVE: Or
pre-barfed-on.

PAM: lol. By famous
improvisers. So everybody out there needs to save their barf because they might
become famous some day!

DAVE: That’s a contradiction
in terms: "famous improvisers."

PAM: Ha. In our little
circle, famous.

Ok. I think I've said
"barf" sufficiently to David Pasquesi. If I was a normal person, I
would be horrified. Speaking of which, people seem to find you quite
intimidating, as I'm sure you have heard.

[At this point in the
interview, there was a lengthy pause.]

Oh, right. And they
say you don't respond until you've been asked a question. I've heard that too.

[Another lengthy
pause.]

Ok. You win…

Does that resonate with you?

DAVE: Me being
intimidating to other people?

PAM: Yeah. Do you hear
that and say, "WTF?" or...

DAVE: I don't
really understand that, no.

PAM: Improvisers have
said to me that you're the guy whose respect they most want to earn. (I think
that's pretty cool.)

Moving on...

Much ado has been
made, in certain circles, about that “First Moment” in a TJ and Dave show, the one when you look at each other
and gracefully step into your characters. Do you ever look at TJ and think, “Oh
crap. I got nothing”?

TJ and Dave

DAVE: All. the. time.

PAM: Hahahaha!

DAVE: Fortunately,
that doesn't seem to be the problem I think it is.

PAM: Because there is
always something…if you trust?

DAVE: Exactly.
Mamet said something like, "The interchange between two people on stage is
always occurring, is always unplanned and is always fascinating...."

Even if I don't trust...it does not require my approval.

PAM: In the beginning
when you started working together, were you specifically looking for something
or just opening up yourself to what was there already?

DAVE: It is
always happening. I don't need to add anything to it; I just need to find out
what it already is.

As I recall, we were just trying to let some unknown thing
unfold one tiny moment at a time. No plans. No great scene ideas or stories. Just
the next little, tiny thing.

PAM: Exquisite.

Do you think this
skill - this art - you and TJ share is learnable/teachable? Or should I just
stick to playing endless rounds of Freeze Tag?

DAVE: Dear God.

PAM: lol.

DAVE: By the way,
Freeze Tag is a children’s' game. Switch is a theater game.

(A pet peeve.)

PAM: Sorry. My troupe,
like many, changes the name of every game.

Ok then. Switch.

DAVE: Almost no
one calls it Switch, but that is
still its name.

PAM: The trend shall
begin anew here.

DAVE: I think the
way TJ and I communicate is kind of rare. I had a connection on stage with Joel
Murray. We were roommates in college. We traveled all over the place together.
We cheated at cards together. We had a history. So it made sense that we had a
way of communicating that was exceptional.

But with TJ, we were pretty much strangers when we started
doing our shows. And yet, we seemed to be on the same page/plane. So, I think
one thing (besides logging hours on stage trying this stuff), is to find a
like-minded person. Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes
perfect.

Speaking of old Greeks, how do you get to the top of Mount Olympus?

Take every step in that direction.

PAM: Nice.

Is it true you and TJ
don't hang out together off-stage?

DAVE: Did you
hear that from the same people who say I am intimidating?

DAVE: I used to
say after the first year of shows that I had known TJ for 52 hours.

PAM: Right. See?! I
didn't just hear that shit anywhere. YOU said it.

DAVE: We travel a
lot together. We spend a lot of time together. I was just at his house in
western Massachusetts.

He's never slept over.

PAM: Ok, so no TJ and
Dave slumber parties. Got it. That fantasy is off the list.

DAVE: We'd get no
rest.

Oh wait...he's never slept over here.

PAM: But you've had
slumber parties on the road? Or is it more in the tent behind your house?

DAVE: A tent
behind my house is also the road.

TJ and Dave from my seat in the audience
UMass - Amherst, 2012

PAM: My favorite moment
in one of the shows I saw recently (the one at UMass - Amherst) was when you
were laughing at something TJ’s character was riffing on. It was sort of a rare
peek into you as a person, and I found it incredibly delightful. What makes you
laugh most?

DAVE: You noticed
earlier the similarities in descriptions of improvisation and spiritual matters
(at least the way I talk about them). I think that these simple things - principles - they work in
improvisation. And they work in the rest of our lives as well.

Play at the top of one's intelligence.

The other person is more important.

Follow the fear.

PAM: Staying in the
moment. Trusting. Being true to others.

DAVE: Yes…yes.

PAM: Lovely.

DAVE: Improvising
is like a safe practice area where you can do the things you don't dare in real
life...yet. In a scene, you can be ultra kind without any of the negative
repercussions.

PAM: There are negative
repercussions to being ultra kind?

DAVE: Facetiously.

PAM: Do you still get
high from improv?

DAVE: Yep. My
brain works differently while improvising in front of people than it does
anywhere else. And I like it.

PAM: It does feel really
good, doesn't it? For me, it relates to that Zen moment. Being in the Flow.
Experiencing the Now.